The Eldwick Church is situated in a semi-rural village on the outskirts of Bradford and on the edge of Ilkley Moor. It is a single congregation Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) formed through a committed merger between the Eldwick Methodist Church and St. Lawrence’s Church of England church.  St. Lawrence’s was formerly a district church in the Bingley All Saints parish.  The Eldwick Church is now the subject of a Bishop’s Mission Order, which was executed in January 2013 and has been renewed for a further 5 years running to January 2023.

 

The LEP was formed in October 2010, beginning to worship as one congregation from January 2011 in the former St Lawrence’s church building, which is situated on the main road at the heart of the old village. The church building is very important to the community; it contains two war memorials and is a non-designated heritage asset.

 

Following the formation of the LEP, the church building was increasingly full and this was impeding our growth as a congregation.  We were also unable to accommodate large local funerals, and baptisms had to take place outside of Sunday services.  At the same time, the unattached wooden church hall was in the final few years of its life and urgently needed to be replaced.

 

Therefore in 2019 we completed the second and final phase of a substantial new building project and our new Hall, Link Building and refurbished Church have been fully open since May 2019. We completed the project by May 2019 and a re-dedication service was held in June 2019, led by Bishop Nick and Rev Dr Roger Walton.  

 

We are grateful to many people in our membership and across Eldwick who supported this project, financially and in practical ways.  Above all, we are immensely grateful to our generous God for his leading and provision for this work.